CONFLICTING EVIDENCE. 79 



chevaux dans Appian, est un sentiment qu'on leur lioit les 

 fers.' ' 



But even these defences must have been rarely resorted 

 to, as the above are the only two instances in which there 

 is any attempt to represent them. It may also be ob- 

 served, that in the Greek or Latin languages there are no 

 words corresponding to those we employ to designate a 

 horse-shoe, or the artisan who applies it, and there is 

 nothing to prove in a logical manner, in ancient history 

 or the writings of veterinarians, that hoofs were furnished, 

 as now-a-days, with a defence attached by nails. 



As before observed, this subject has given rise to much 

 dispute and research for very many years. Montfau^on ^ 

 asserts : ' The custom of shoeing horses is very ancient, 

 although there are certain proofs that it was not general 

 among the Romans. Fabretti says, that among the great 

 number of horses which occur in ancient monuments, he 

 never saw more than one which was shod, though he 

 made it his business to examine them all, both upon 

 columns and other marbles. As to the mules, both male 

 and female, they are often said by writers to have been 

 shod. There are, nevertheless, certain and undoubted 

 proofs that the ancients shod their horses ; thus much 

 Homer and Appian say (?) ; though it does not appear, 

 indeed, that the custom was general.' In another place, 

 he writes : ' The horses' feet (on an Etruscan tomb) 

 have iron shoes, a particular rarely seen on ancient 

 monuments. Fabretti says, that of all the horses he saw 



' Description des Pierres Gravees du Feu Baron de Stosch. Florence, 

 1760, p. 169. 



^ Antiquite Expliq., vol. iv. p. 50. 



